My Equipment

I'm often asked about the equipment I use. Here's a brief rundown. Please understand, however, that equipment is really a small part of making great pictures. It's your creative and artistic use of equipment in a technically accurate way that does the job.

Also understand that this presentation reflects my own personal opinions. You should seek several sources of advice before making any equipment purchasing decisions yourself.

Camera

Canon EOS-3. This is Canon's number two camera behind the 1-series, which costs about 2 times as much. The EOS-3 has all the features I deemed important. I chose it over the Elan (which I also own as backup) and Rebel because I wanted the finer spot meter and the mirror lock-up feature.

Lenses

I have bought all Canon lenses, including:

15mm f2.8 fisheye

16-35mm f2.8L

24mm f3.5 Tilt-Shift

28-135mm f3.5-4.5 Image Stabilized

100mm f2.8 Macro

70-200mm f2.8L

75-300mm f4-5.6 Image Stabilized

300mm f4 Image Stabilized

1.4 teleconverter

Of course I have lens caps and hoods for every lens.

My current lens setup works pretty good for most landscape, travel, recreation, and basic wildlife and macro photography.

So what lenses do I carry? All of them when working from a car or nearly all of them on day hikes. For backpacking trips, I'll carry the 16-35mm, 28-135mm, 70-200mm, and, often, the 300mm and 1.4X. I'll carry the 24mm Tilt-Shift if I expect wildflowers with grand scenics. If I expect macro work, the 100mm comes along. For rock climbing, I'll carry just the 16-35mm and 28-135mm.

Tripod

Bogen 3021 tripod with Bogen 3055 (now 488) ball head. This tripod has the right level of sturdiness, weight, and size for me. I prefer the Bogen lever lock-legs as opposed to the twist-lock legs because I find the lever-lock faster and more positive to use. The 3055 ball head is plenty sturdy enough for me. If you will be shooting with seriously big lenses, you may want a larger more expensive ball head.

I always keep one quick release plate mounted to my camera body and another mounted to the tripod collars on the 70-200mm and 300mm lenses.

Filters

In very rough order of use:

Cokin P filter holders and adapter rings for each lens I own.

Tiffen circular polarizer (threaded)

Singh-Ray warm circular polarizer (for Cokin P holder)

Tiffen 812 warming (threaded) - protective filter for all my lenses

Tiffen 81B warming (threaded)

Singh-Ray 2-stop soft-edged graduated neutral density

Singh-Ray 3-stop hard-edged graduated neutral density

Flash Equipment

	Canon 540EZ Flash - Very powerful portable flash with manual control features available (now 550EX).
	Canon 220EX Flash - Used primarily on a flash bracket for macro work of moving subjects (i.e. frogs, insects, butterflies).
	Lumiquest Promax Mini Softbox - A handy, collapsible softbox that velcros on to my 540EZ flash head.
	TTL Flash Sync-Cord - Allows you to locate flash a couple feet away from camera for different lighting affects.
	Ikelight TTL Wireless Slave Sensor.
	Home-made flash bracket - For macro work. See John Shaw's Closeups in Nature pages 91 & 94 for basic design concept.

Other Accessories

In rough order of use:

	Shutter Release Cord - Don't leave home without it.
	12mm and 25mm Kenko Extension Tubes.
	Small 2 AA Battery Maglite - for dawn, dusk, and night shooting.
	Right Angle Finder - for low-angle, ground-level shots.
	Photoflex Litedisk - A round collapsible white/gold 23" reflector.

Camera Bags

For day hikes and car-based photography, I currently carry all this stuff in a Lowepro Super Trekker AW backpack. This photo pack is huge and easily accommodates all my camera equipment and some basic hiking essentials (jacket, water, munchies). It has a very comfortable harness system and fits my long torso very well.

For backpacking, I fill up a Tamrac Half Moon Hip Pack and put this under the main flap of my backpack. I'll also carry the 300mm and flash equipment well padded in a small book-bag-type day-pack (that can be worn with the hip pack) strapped to the outside of my backpack.

For climbing, I put my camera body with a 16-35mm or 28-135mm lens in a Zing camera case over my shoulder (with elastic strap around my waist).